RBS profit overshadowed by NatWest downtime

28 April 2017 | 7594 views | 4

On the day that Royal Bank of Scotland reported its first quarterly profit in 12 years, the sweet taste of success has turned bitter for customers of subsidiary NatWest who have seen transfers from accounts vanish and mobile apps and online banking go dark.

Ongoing since 7.15 am, the calamity couldn't have come at a worse time, hitting on payday for thousands of customers and just as the UK enters a bank holiday weekend.

Customers took to Twitter to vent their frustration, reporting long queues before they could get to speak to someone.

Waiting time of 30 mins minimum to answer a call to @NatWest_Help because of more calls than usual Not surprised when the app isn't working

What's @Bodders444 complaining about? Across the pond, 30 minutes hold time is about average while trying to reach a service provider on the phone - when all's well. And when s**t hits the fan, as in the present case with NatWest, hold times as long two
hours are not unheard of e.g. TARGET data breach. On a side note, this is another example of a customer using phone first to complain, then Twitter to rant. For the past several years, I've been following the reverse sequence and it works wonders - with most
brands, I get my problem resolved within an hour on Twitter and have rarely had to pick up the phone.